Nuts, fruits and vegetables, meat, seafood and healthy oils are all part of the Whole30 diet, which is a 30-day challenge based on the framework of a Paleo diet. / Nathan Papes/News-Leader

Written by

This brunch meal was easy to cook up in about 15 minutes. Two eggs were scrambled with coconut milk, tomatoes, shredded zucchini, and red and yellow peppers. Once eggs were plated, the same pan was used to stir fry snow peas with yellow squash and zucchini slices in olive oil, topped with garlic powder and crumbled basil leaves. / Sony Hocklander/News-Leader

These two diets are all the rage and have inspired Facebook groups, blogs, forums and more. CrossFit, a fitness company with local branches, has challenged its athletes to try Whole30 this month.

So what are these diets?

In a nutshell, the Paleo diet encourages people to eat as hunters and gatherers did in the Paleolithic era, before the agricultural revolution. This isn’t a diet where you count calories, it’s about eliminating certain foods — dairy, refined sugars, grains, processed foods — and eating more nuts, seafood, meat (preferably grass-fed and free range), fruits, vegetables and healthy oils (olive, coconut, avocado, macadamia, walnut and flaxseed).

The Whole30 is based on a Paleo framework but restricts some foods that might be considered “Paleo” in nature, such as raw honey or desserts made with almond flour, said Melissa Hartwig, who founded the Whole30 with her husband, Dallas, and wrote “It Starts With Food,” a New York Times best seller.

The goal of the Whole30 is to eliminate all foods that may be having a negative psychological or physiological effect on how you look, feel and live, Hartwig said.

After the 30-day challenge, dieters slowly reintroduce foods one at a time back into their diet, and that’s when they may discover that a food group has been bothering them.

The most common culprits are gluten and dairy, she said.

Another aspect of the Whole30 is that participants are not supposed to weigh themselves during the challenge.

“We are really interested in changing people’s relationship with food and getting them to a place where they have sustainable health. When you change health, weight loss follows. People get so caught up on the scale, they don’t pay attention to the benefits, such as sleeping better,” Hartwig said.

Hartwig said her husband tried the Paleo diet, and it changed his life, so the two adapted a Paleo diet and then started blogging about it and wrote their book. They had no idea it would take off this way.

(Page 2 of 6)

They chose a 30-day challenge because it was a manageable time commitment — 90 days was too long, but 30 was the minimum to really see benefits, Hartwig said.

Grains, legumes and dairy

If oatmeal, black beans and yogurt are good for you (or so you’ve been told), why can’t you eat them on these diets?

The short answer is that grains and legumes irritate the gut, said Raine Holly, a registered dietitian with CoxHealth who follows a Paleo diet.

Peanuts (a legume, not a nut), wheat germ and barley all contain lectins, Holly said. Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins that can irritate the gut and can provoke an immune response in the body and cause systemic inflammation.

The Paleo diet tries to reduce systemic inflammation in the body that many people don’t even realize is taking place, Holly said.

The Paleo diet website also claims that “on a calorie-by-calorie basis, whole grains are lousy sources of fiber, minerals, and B vitamins when compared to the lean meats, seafood, and fresh fruit and veggies that dominate the Paleo diet. For example, a 1,000-calorie serving of fresh fruits and vegetables has between two and seven times as much fiber as does a comparable serving of whole grains. In fruits and veggies most of the fiber is heart-healthy, soluble fiber that lowers cholesterol levels ...”

Dairy is more controversial, and some people who follow Paleo diets still eat things like Greek yogurt, Holly said.

The theory behind eliminating dairy is twofold: First, lactose, a sugar in milk, can irritate digestive systems and so can casein, which is a protein in milk. Also, dairy products can have a lot of added salt (cheeses have a lot of salt) or sugar (yogurt), and the Paleo diet discourages sugar and salt.

Touted benefits

Stacy Strawn is about three weeks into her Whole30 challenge.

“I heard about it through CrossFit, and then some friends are doing it as well, so I did my own research and decided to try it,” Strawn said.

(Page 3 of 6)

She wanted a healthier lifestyle but also suffers from irritable bowel disease, so she wanted to experiment.

“It has helped tremendously with my stomach issues. I am not sure if I have an intolerance to something; I will find out when I add things back in my diet,” she said.

Initially, she had headaches on the diet, which is normal because the body is detoxing from sugar, but the headaches are now gone and she has more energy.

“I don’t wake up tired. I wake up ready to go,” Strawn said.

Sara Devlin of Ozark tried the Whole30 in October and is on her second challenge.

She’s lost 27 pounds since October, but more importantly, she feels great.

She knew she was gluten intolerant before she tried Whole30, but in taking the challenge and reintroducing foods, found that soy and dairy bother her, too.

Her husband has joined her effort, and he loves it because they eat more meat now than before. He’s lost 30 pounds, has more energy and has stopped snoring.

Devlin also had skin problems, likes bumps on her hands, which have cleared up.

Ultimately, it has changed the way Devlin looks at food.

“I think you get to a point where you know your body knows it’s bad for you. When I look at a doughnut I see poison, I don’t see a delicious treat,” Devlin said.

Initially, when Holly learned about the Paleo diet, she was against it. As a dietitian, she said “no way.”

Several family members are on the diet, and when she started feeling sick and weak, she decided to try it about two years ago.

Now, she rarely gets sick, her joints don’t hurt and she has more energy.

Diet downsides

So what are the downsides?

“The hardest part is not being able to eat sugar. It’s hidden in everything, and your body really wants it,” Devlin said. “The only frustrating thing is the chocolate.”

Overall, she and other diet followers say it’s a big time commitment because it requires more cooking.

“If you don’t cook, it’s something you have to fit into your lifestyle, and figuring that out is probably the hardest part about it,” Holly said.

(Page 4 of 6)

It also means more dishes, Devlin said.

Strawn’s husband and child are not on the diet, so it means extra cooking for her.

Because so much of what Devlin eats is fresh, she is constantly grocery shopping, and the food can be more expensive.

The important thing if you follow this diet is to do it accurately, said Adam Pruett, a registered dietitian at Mercy.

“If it’s followed appropriately and you get a variety of foods and make sure they are lean sources of protein and fat, then you can say it’s for anybody. If you go through a list of not-allowed foods — dairy, cereal, potatoes, refined sugars, processed foods — if you look at those things, it’s things we say as dietitians to avoid or minimize,” Pruett said.

The problem is that people don’t always follow a diet precisely because they tend to eat what they like, and they can miss out on important nutrients.

“The major downside is you don’t get sufficient amounts of calcium, vitamin D, probiotics. Vitamin D is in dairy sources and the same with calcium,” Pruett said.

If the diet promotes meat, vegetables and fruit, but the dieter likes meat and fruit, but not vegetables, then he or she isn’t following the diet properly, he said.

These diets have some good points, but overall the best advice is to eat a wide variety of healthy foods and practice portion control, Pruett said.

“This is not a ‘diet’ — we eat as much as we need to maintain strength, energy, activity levels and a healthy body weight. We aim for well-balanced nutrition, so we eat animals and a significant amount of plants.

“Eating like this has helped us to look, feel, live and perform our best, and reduces our risk for a variety of lifestyle-related diseases and conditions.”

Try this recipe

An organic, grass-fed, beautifully marbled steak — served alongside a crisp salad and a few supporting vegetables — is the ideal “real food” dinner.

Mocha Steak

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

1 tablespoon ground coriander

2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons ground coffee

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

4 ribeye steaks, about 1- to 1 1/4-inch thick

1 tablespoon clarified butter

In a small bowl, mix the pepper, coriander, salt, coffee, cinnamon, cocoa and cloves with a fork until combined. Coat the steaks generously with the spice rub, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap, and allow to rest in spice blend for at least 30 minutes before cooking.

For Pan Fried Steak

Heat a large cast-iron skillet for 10 minutes over medium heat on either gas or electric stove. Add the clarified butter, allow it to melt, then swirl the pan to coat the bottom. Add the steak(s) and cook until well browned on one side, about 5 minutes. Turn steaks with tongs and cook to desired doneness: rare = 3 minutes; medium-rare = 4 more; medium = 5 minutes. Remove steaks from pan; let rest 5 minutes, then serve.

For Gas Grilled Steak

Turn all burners to high, close the lid and heat the grill until very hot, about 15 minutes. Scrape the grill grate clean with a grill brush. Leave one burner on high and turn the other burner(s) to medium. Grill the steaks, uncovered, on the hotter part of the grill until well browned on one side, 2 to 3 minutes. Flip the steaks with tongs and grill until well browned on the other side, 2 to 3 minutes. Now that the steaks are browned, slide them to the cooler side of the grill. Continue to cook until desired doneness: rare (120 degrees) = 5-6 minutes; medium-rare (125-130 degrees) = 6-8 minutes; medium (135-140 degrees) = 8-9 minutes. Remove steaks from the grill; let rest for 5 minutes and serve.

Source: “It Starts With Food.”

You can still dine out on the diet

(Page 6 of 6)

You can still dine out on the diet

You can still eat out if you plan. Check restaurant menus online to make sure there are some items you can order. Bring your own salad dressing, like vinegar and oil. Ask the wait staff how items are cooked and request some things on the side, or ask if you can substitute vegetables.

Whole30 menus

CrossFit Springfield worked with several local restaurants to offer Whole30 friendly foods while its athletes are doing the challenge. These restaurants have food that fits into that lifestyle through January:

Useful websites to help you along

How the Paleo diet really works

The Paleo diet mimics the types of foods people ate before the Agricultural Revolution. These foods (fresh fruits, vegetables, meats and seafood) are high in the beneficial nutrients (soluble fiber, antioxidant vitamins, phytochemicals, omega-3 and monounsaturated fats, and low-glycemic carbohydrates) that promote good health and are low in the foods and nutrients (refined sugars and grains, trans fats, salt, high-glycemic carbohydrates and processed foods) that frequently may cause weight gain, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and numerous other health problems.

The Paleo diet encourages dieters to replace dairy and grain products with fresh fruits and vegetables — foods that are more nutritious than whole grains or dairy products.